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Our guys tried their best: Lee

Kolkata Knight Riders pacer says T20 format can be ruthless at times

By Akshay Manwani

Kolkata 15 May 2012

Brett Lee was not part of the Kolkata Knight Riders playing XI when they were subjected to a last-ball defeat by the Chennai Super Kings. Still, you could feel a sense of disappointment in Lee at the end of the nerve-wracking game. Although, KKR played very well to bring themselves back into the contest, Dwayne Bravo’s last-ball six off Rajat Bhatia proved to be the difference between winning and losing for the two sides in this contest.

Lee spoke to iplt20.com following his team’s agonizing defeat to the defending champions.

Can you describe the mood in the dressing room after such a tough loss?

Yes. It’s a hard one to swallow when it comes down to the last ball, but you have to give our guys full credit. They tried their best. The game of T20 cricket is ruthless and heart breaking at times. We just have to make sure that we come back from this. We are still in a very good position. There is no point for us to moan about anything for too long. We have got a game in about 48 hours time. It’s in Mumbai on a wicket which is more conducive to fast bowling and which will probably suit our batsmen and bowlers more than the challenging wicket here. Rajat bowled well in the few overs leading up to that last ball. What’s going on in his mind right now?

Everyone is a professional here and everyone wants to do their best they can for the team. He will be feeling down, but we’ve got to make sure that we grab him by the back and get him up because he has done a wonderful job for us throughout the season. And there is no one blaming anyone here. It’s not about pointing the finger at the last ball or the second last over or the fourth last over or we should have got more runs. We’re in this together as a team. So, there is no blame, no finger pointing. It’s just T20 cricket.

There were three changes in your team today. Was that a reaction to the loss against Mumbai Indians from the other night?

I am not really sure about it. I guess they were trying to suit the bowlers to the wicket, but I’m not really sure. Two games left to go in this competition for KKR. But you must be feeling the pressure to win the next games with a couple of teams still in the mix to make it to the playoffs?

We just have to make sure that we win the next game. It’s one of those things where we try and get over what happened tonight, get through it in order to be nice, fresh and in the right frame of mind when we come on the 16th to Mumbai. The KKR pace bowling attack combination has followed a rotation policy with two of either Marchant de Lange, L Balaji and yourself playing in the XI. Tonight, you didn’t get a game, but you must be happy with your performance overall?

I have been very pleased with the way I am bowling. Playing here is obviously tough for a fast bowler as we’ve seen in the past.

Where do you think KKR will end up at the end of this season?

The best way to answer that is to play nice, open, free cricket come the 16th night. That’s all we can worry about now. [It] doesn’t matter how many points we are on. It doesn’t matter what happened in the last five or ten minutes. We can’t look too far ahead. The next game is our most important game of the whole tournament. If we can go in there with a clean frame of mind, in order to play the best cricket we can, then hopefully, we’ll have a win down there and then we’ll be back on top again.

Quick Stats: Match 62 – RCB v MI

122 Runs added by Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard for the sixth wicket without being separated – the highest sixth wicket partnership in all Twenty20s. Interestingly, the previous highest sixth wicket partnership had also come in an IPL game; David Hussey and Wridhiman Saha had added 104 runs for the Kolkata Knight Riders against Kings XI Punjab at Mohali in IPL 2008.

100 Percent – Mumbai Indians’ record at Bangalore in the IPL. They have four wins in four games!54 Runs conceded by Munaf Patel. Only one bowler – Rajasthan Royals’ Amit Singh – has conceded more (55) runs in a match in IPL 2012. Two other bowlers – MS Gony and Ashish Nehra – also conceded 54 runs. Interestingly, Munaf conceded only 10 runs in his first two overs and 44 in next two!

19 Number of sixes conceded by Munaf Patel in IPL 2012 – the most by any bowler. He overtook Amit Mishra’s tally of 17 sixes.

18 Number of times sides batting second have chased down a target in the last over of a match in IPL 2012. The Mumbai Indians have done so more than any other side – four times.

10 Balls bowled by Munaf in his third over (fifth over of the innings) including three no-balls and one wide. This was the sixth instance when a 10-ball over was bowled in the IPL and second such instance in IPL 2012. Kings XI Punjab’s Parvinder Awana was the first one to do so against the Mumbai Indians on April 22.5 Sourabh Tiwary became the fifth player after Musavir Khote, Misbah ul Haq, Swapnil Asnodkar and Ravindra Jadeja to be dismissed hit-wicket in the IPL.1 Sachin Tendulkar registered his first golden duck in the IPL – overall, his third duck. The other two were third-ball ducks.